Google My Business API V3.2 Offers Historical Insights

Subscribe to Email Updates

Recently, Brandify predicted that Local would be an even greater focus for Google in 2017, and now, just two short weeks into the new year, Google has released its quarterly update of the Google My Business (GMB) API with version 3.2. Since the release of V3.1 last September, Google has focused on enhancing the local customer experience by empowering brands to access their GMB insights data and respond to customer reviews in real time. Now, with the release of the GMB API V3.2, Google has made it easier for brands to access their complete historical data and connect multi-location insights to make data-driven marketing decisions.

First spotted by Mike Blumenthal, the most recent GMB API update brings with it an extended history of data that is now available directly through the API, and previously only accessible in GMB Insights. Brands will be able to access data from as long as 18 months prior as opposed to just 90 days, enabling brands to utilize more linear data and compare performance on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.

The insights API will now let marketers to generate reports involving the following analytics:

How Customers Find Your Listings- Direct Queries: How many customers searched for your business name or address directly. - Discover Queries: How many customers search for a category, product or service that your brand offers, and for which your listing appeared.

With a wider time frame to compare how consumers found your brand over a given period of time, your brand will be able to unpack what organic campaigns or categories are having an impact. By separating direct queries from discover queries, brands will also be able to separate customers from prospects to better target each group with relevant content and offers.

Where Customers Find You on Google- View on Maps: How many customers found your business on Google Maps. - Views on Search: How many customers found your business on Google Search.

Understanding how many customers found your store location on Google Maps or Google Search can help you determine how how your local pages are performing, as well as potential pages that need to be claimed and syndicated. Additionally, understanding how much traffic is driven by Google can help you assess which platforms or search engines your users are coming from.

Customer Action- Visits to Website: How many customers visited your website. - Clicks to Phone: How many customers called your business.- Clicks for Driving Directions: How many customers requested driving directions to your business.

Customer actions over time prompt more well-defined marketing initiatives and help marketers in comparing campaigns. Whether your brand recently redesigned its corporate site or individual local pages, enabled click-to-call extensions or updated address information across listing, the Customer Actions data will allow you to see how those changes impacted customer behavior and in-store conversions.

Driving Directions Requests- Provides up to 10 places from which customers request driving directions to your business location.

This tool will provide valuable insights about your customers’ daily habits and local touchpoints that often lead to interaction with one of your store locations. Understanding where your audience comes from and what stops are part of their daily routine, will enhance your brand’s ad targeting capabilities and provide an improved customer experience throughlocal innovation.

In addition to the improved historical insights capabilities, Google My Business version 3.2 also features “Google Update” notifications that will be rolled out within the next few weeks. This capability will allow brands to subscribe to real-time Google notifications, in addition to the current “New Review” notifications. With real-time updates from Google on a regular basis, enterprise marketers will be able to stay informed about happenings on the local level, while delegating specific tasks to individual location managers.

Brandify has been supporting the GMB API updates since its initial release in 2015, and has already integrated GMB Insights into the Brandify Dashboard. The 18-month extended data view will enable enterprise brands to better measure and analyze their performance at the local level and take action based on areas of success or room for improvement. Learn more about how your brand can access GMB Insights at both the corporate roll-up and location level through Brandify’s premium dashboard view, and start mastering local customer engagement today.